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Cabrera to Dookeran: Let’s debate

The trade union movement has challenged Finance Minister Winston Dookeran to a public debate to explain why workers alone are being forced to bear the burden of a slowing economy. In a telephone interview yesterday, Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union (BIGWU) president Vincent Cabrera said: “We challenge Dookeran to a public debate to explain his right wing economics and his decision to place the economic burden on workers alone.” He was responding to Dookeran’s statement it was unjustifiable for the labour movement to shutdown the country and his denying the five per cent wage cap at Thursday’s post-Cabinet media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. Cabrera said Dookeran needed to explain why no other group or economic sector, apart from workers, were being asked to make any level of financial sacrifice through their wages. He claimed Dookeran “had polluted the industrial relations climate with the imposition of the five per cent cap on collective bargaining in the public services and public sector.” Cabrera criticised Dookeran for calling the five per cent a “guideline in negotiations.”